BOOK 1 - SALVATION'S
CRUCIBLE
(EARTH - THE
CRASH)
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
PART 1
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
(Antar Date - 4.15.19628)
(Earth Date - January 9th, 1936)
(On a transport headed toward Earth - The Leptes)
General Nicaron sat at the desk in his quarters studying the
information the researchers had gathered about the planet Earth. The planet's atmosphere was deadly to
their species, immediately on contact, turning their bodies to dust. The scientific team on-board would use
the time on the journey to devise a plan to help them survive in the planet's
atmosphere.
Nicaron pulled up another file containing the information
they had gathered from Zan's scientist Jensto, concerning the Royal Four's
cloning plan. He scanned it
briefly, already familiar with the contents. It would take the incubation pods that held the Royal Four,
approximately forty years to complete the combination of the genetic materials,
after the shape shifters had gathered the human DNA. Nicaron had no idea how long it would take to find the
appropriate donors but he knew the trait required to make the combination was
rare among humans. Hopefully it
would take some time, giving his troops an opportunity to discover the shape
shifter's location. But he was a
realist and had no illusions about their chances.
The power of the Granolith would allow the Royal Four's
transport to reach Earth in only a month while it would take his slower ship
several years. The shape shifters
would have plenty of time to accomplish their tasks and blend in with the native
population. He sighed as he sat
back in his chair, this would be the most difficult mission he had ever
undertaken.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
(Transport containing the Royal Four - The Sephtafus)
Kaldar rolled one of the communication orbs around in his
hands, unconsciously embedding memory fragments in it. The addition of the Granolith's power
to their transport's engines had cut their traveling time to practically
nothing. They were rapidly
approaching Earth and he was becoming increasingly nervous. Antar's future rested on their
shoulders. It was a large
responsibility and being somewhat empathic, he could feel the tension in those
around him.
The scientists had discovered for the cloning to succeed,
they needed human genetic material that possessed a certain irregularity in its
DNA. And they had to find at least
two different donors to allow for the pairing of the couples. Vilondra and Zan's clones could have
DNA from the same donor or family but Ava and Rath would have to have a
different donor. But Cuerena had
already told them she wanted four donors if possible, to make the gene pool
diverse.
They had brought two sets of pods to make two sets of
clones. One set would contain the
Royal Four and the other set would contain decoys.
The plan had included a set of decoys because they had been
certain Khivar's forces would be able to detect the transport leaving Antar and
if Khivar sent troops to destroy the clones there would be a good chance he
would get the wrong set.
Kaldar had been assigned to watch over the decoys until they
had reached maturity and then he would return to his place at Rath's side. He had served as Rath's protector since
Rath was a child and it would be hard to leave his master but there were other
considerations and he had to follow his orders.
Kaldar's attention was drawn to a large gas planet they were
passing, with large bands of color and a prominent red spot. It was impossibly beautiful. Images of other incredible celestial
bodies they had passed on their journey flashed through his mind. Sometimes he wished he hadn't been born
a protector and he could have followed his dream to become an explorer.
Wistfully he thought back to the one other time he had been
off Antar. He had been very young
and newly assigned as a trainee to Rath's great uncle. Aladar Varros had been one of the
leading scientists on Antar and he had led the team that destroyed the red
giant star. Kaldar had never seen
anything as beautiful as the dying star and he still mourned its loss.
The image of the red giant floated fondly through his mind
as he considered the next phase in their journey. They did not know how far humans had technologically
progressed in the four hundred years since the exploration team had visited the
planet, but it was suspected the humans would not possess the technology to be
able to detect their transport approaching Earth. Still it was decided they would take a stealthy orbit path
closely following that of the planet's only moon and monitor the technology
before attempting to land.
Kaldar felt the ship slow as they approached the small moon
and their destination, the planet Earth.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
(Earth Date - February 13th, 1936)
(The Sephtafus - Orbiting in the Moon's Shadow)
Over the next month, an overwhelming amount of data was
gathered about Earth due to the constant broadcast of entertainment and news
programming from Earth on various frequencies. The planet was divided into numerous regions called
countries, and the shape shifters had been able to learn of the political
systems in the larger countries.
They also discovered that they had come to the Earth just a few years
after a war, involving almost the whole world.
They learned of the military forces and the technology the
humans possessed and determined the country called The United States of America
would be the best area in which to settle. That country was the most technically advanced and also
seemed to be the most stable politically and it was separated physically from
the more aggressive and war-like countries. It also had a governmental system comparable to the type of
government Zan had tried to instate on Antar. But perhaps most importantly, the United States was a large
country with many unsettled areas.
They all decided it would be the best choice.
It had only taken them a couple of days to learn the English
language. It was a simple
language, only containing twenty-six letters and a simple sentence structure. Then they had concentrated on the dress
and customs of the country.
During this time, Cuerena had also looked for an area to
house the pods and the Granolith.
She wanted something away from human settlement, that was unlikely to be
disturbed and finally she found the perfect place.
Cuerena approached Sodan on the transport's command
center. "I have found an
isolated area in the southwest desert that will be perfect. It contains a number of large rock
formations we could easily alter to contain the Granolith and the pod
chamber."
"Excellent," Sodan answered. "The humans have no technology
capable of tracking our presence so we will simply wait until dark to descend
and scout the area. If it is
suitable, we will begin work immediately.
Have you discovered a way to speed up the human donor selection?"
"No," Cuerena said. "I am afraid we will have to gather samples for
testing. The search for the proper
DNA could take a very long time.
It will mean abducting the candidates and extracting samples
forcefully."
Sodan looked at her strangely. "I am not concerned about inconveniencing the
humans."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
(February 20th, 1936)
(The Desert outside Roswell, New Mexico)
Sodan, Kaldar and Letras had worked all night and most of
the day to enlarge the rock formation and construct the chambers that would
house the Granolith and the pods containing the Royal Four. The heat was greater than they were
used to but their bodies naturally adapted to almost any conditions.
The pendant Sodan wore around his neck, swung back and
forth, knocking repeatedly on the supports he was erecting. He stopped to remove it and ran his
thumb over the raised pattern, the symbol of Antar. With a sigh of homesickness, he placed it on floor by the
chamber opening, as Cuerena called him from the transport.
"Sodan, have you finished the work on the
chamber?"
"Yes Cuerena," Sodan answered. "The Granolith will be installed
tonight."
"Good.
Return to the transport when you have finished, and just before first
light we will go to a new area and start taking humans for testing."
"Have you decided where to start?" asked Sodan
"Tucson, Arizona."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
(March 23rd, 1943)
(Knoxville, Kentucky)
Sodan glanced out the car window, absently watching the
trees and rolling green hills.
Since the attack on Pearl Harbor had pulled this country into the World
War, he and the other shape shifters had been forced to restrict their search
to human methods. Their search had
originally been hampered by the planet's lack of technology and now ironically
it was a technological advance that was continuing to disrupt the search.
The humans had developed a technology called radar that was
capable of tracking metallic objects, including their transport. It was easy enough to alter the
transport's shields to avoid detection but with all of the paranoia caused by
the attack on Hawaii, many more Americans were watching the skies for foreign
aircraft. They could not take the
risk that the transport would be spotted and shot out of the sky, mistaken for
the enemy, so they had resorted to traveling by automobile.
Sodan sighed.
The search was not going well.
They had been on the planet for over five years and had only located one
suitable donor and that had just been pure dumb luck. The Dupree man had practically fallen into their laps, to
use an Earth colloquialism. He had
been mining outside of Tucson, near where they had landed and they had been
forced to take him to suppress his memory of the event.
Sodan almost laughed aloud at the memory. He and Kaldar had altered their
appearance to match pictures of extraterrestrials they had seen in a
magazine, and had taken the man prisoner with their 'ray guns.' It had just been a lucky coincidence
that the human had possessed the DNA irregularity they were searching for. They had also attempted to check the
DNA of his family but he had no living blood relatives and had produced no
offspring. Possibly because of the
irregularity, he had also been practically immune to the memory suppressant and
they had been forced to keep him on-board the transport until they had finished
their search of the area. They had
not been concerned when they had released him, knowing his stories would be
dismissed as the ramblings of a mad man.
Cuerena had predicted that the search might take a long time
but Sodan had never imagined it would be this long. The humans had no data storage devices other than crude
written records and it made the search very difficult. Cuerena suspected that the DNA
irregularity was most prevalent in a certain blood type but the humans had only
discovered the differences in their own blood a little over two years ago and
blood type technology was still not widely used.
The human's discovery of the blood types had helped to
narrow the search considerably.
They had started to check hospital records to find individuals with the
correct blood type and then tested their entire family.
At first they had taken individuals at random for
testing. They had been careful not
to take too many humans from the same area because even with the memory
suppressant drugs, it was possible the humans would still retain some fragments
of the experience.
Suddenly Cuerena's voice broke into Sodan thoughts, "I
believe the war can help us greatly in our search."
"How is that possible?" he asked, skeptical but
interested.
She held up a copy of Life magazine she had been
reading. "This article says
that because of a new directive, human soldiers are required to wear a set of
identification tags listing, among other things, their blood types. It also says a great many humans have
been injured in the war and extensive medical records have been kept. We can start a new search in those
records and narrow the possibilities considerably.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
(The
Sephtafus - near San Diego, California)
Cuerena carefully prepared the human DNA for combination
with the Antarian genetic material.
When they had first started their search, they had stumbled on the
Dupree man whose DNA she would use for Rath's clone. Then five years ago they had found a brother and sister with
the genetic abnormality, that she would use for Zan and Vilondra's clones. The final donor had been located
yesterday, and now they had all of the samples they needed to begin the
cloning.
She carefully mixed the DNA with the Ganderium and injected
it into the pods already containing the Antarian genetic material. In just a few hours, with the help of a
rapid growth compound, the pods would contain what appeared to be normal human
fetuses. The clones would have a
human body and physiology but to make them compatible with the Antarian genetic
material, their blood would be noticeably different. It would appear red if they were injured but stained and
under a microscope, even a casual observer would be able to see the
differences.
The scientists on Antar had ensured that the clones would
regenerate more quickly than their human counterparts and they would have
immunity to all of the planet's diseases.
The structure of the human brain had also been slightly altered not only
to accommodate the memories of the clones' past lives but also to be advanced enough
to use the powers the originals had possessed.
The clones would emerge from the pods as children and age at
human rate until they reached maturity, then their aging would slow to the
natural Antarian rate. Their
bodies would continue to regenerate lost or damaged cells as human bodies did
not and they would have an expanded life of up to 350 Earth years.
The clones would physically resemble their human donors but
Cuerena left their coloring up to chance, interested to see if their Antarian
genetic material would dominate the human DNA. She had kept image disks of the donors and carefully
engraved the images of what she estimated the Royal Four would look like into
the book, first as children and then as young adults.
A genetic code was added to trigger their sexual drives, in
the tenth year of life after hatching from the pods, in the hopes that Zan
would produce an heir. Kaldar, who
had been studying the stars around their new home had discovered early in the
tenth year, the system's second planet Venus, would move into a position that would
make it appear to be aligned with four stars, producing the same 'V' pattern as
the royal seal. Cuerena agreed
that this coincidence would make a fitting start to the clone's maturation
cycle. As a back up, she
programmed the communication orbs to also be activated by the planet Venus
coming into alignment and release an additional trigger signal.
Queen Nedra had asked Cuerena confidentially if it would be
possible to remove Vilondra's memories of her love for Khivar. Cuerena knew that such things were done
with the living but the erased memories were rarely repressed permanently. They almost always resurfaced at some
time. But the Queen had insisted
she at least try to suppress Vilondra's memories and Cuerena had vowed she
would attempt it.
She carefully separated the cells that had been taken from
Vilondra's brain, removing those she knew to contain the memories, and with
Kaldar's help she tagged a memory suppressant to the cells he felt carried the
strongest memories of Vilondra's love for Khivar. Cuerena feared that removing the cells would create a hole
in Vilondra's memory, and she was fairly certain at some point Vilondra would
regain the memories, but perhaps by then she would be better equipped to deal
with them.
Using the memory retrieval devices, the clones should
remember most of their past lives.
The only exception seemed to be the time near the subject's death. On Antar, Jensto had accomplished the
cloning process several times with almost complete success in restoring the
subjects' memories but all of the clones lacked the details of the last few
hours of their life. Cuerena
thought it was a good thing personally.
She wouldn't want to remember her own death.
When she had finished implanting the pods with the DNA and
Ganderium, Cuerena contacted Sodan in the command center. "The pods are prepared and ready
to be transferred to the chamber."
"We will lift off immediately," he responded.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
(Onboard the Leptes)
Nicaron waited impatiently for the latest report. They had been in orbit around Earth for
over a month with no progress to report.
He was afraid that the only chance they had to locate the Royal Four was
if their protectors made a mistake.
His attention was drawn to the door as Major Nesta came
rushing in. "Sir, we have
them."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
TBC
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